Monday, March 03, 2014

Columnist Joseph Gerth wrote yesterday in the Louisville Courier Journal that begins:

Attorney General Jack Conway, who wants to be the next governor, is in an unenviable situation.

With U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn issuing his final ruling last week in the case challenging a Kentucky law that prohibits the state from recognizing gay marriages from elsewhere, Conway has to decide whether to appeal his decision.

He and governor Steve Beshear have said they’ll work quickly to decide whether to take the case to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati or if they’ll do as Democrats have done in six other states — walk away believing that the framework established by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Windsor case means that they can’t win. * * *

No matter what [AG] Conway decides, he’ll surely anger a sizable portion of Kentucky’s electorate — one group that could make it tough to win a Democratic primary for governor and the other group that could make it difficult to win the general election.

And while [Gov] Beshear says he has run his last political race, he certainly wants to protect his own image, lest he sully the Beshear brand as his son, Andrew, gears up to run for Attorney General in 2015.

Here is the updated ILB post on the status of the Kentucky case, which involves the issue of whether Kentucky is required to give recognition to same sex marriages performed in other states.